Posts Tagged ‘local government’

The Sentinel & Entrprise Chooses sides

Posted: February 7, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, opinion/news
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And they choose the right side in the Planned Parenthood Fight:

It may be difficult, despite the sustained and growing public outcry, to prevent the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts from opening a branch on Main Street in Fitchburg, or somewhere else in the city.

But that should not prevent city officials from trying, particularly if the non-profit organization sticks with its plan to open on Main Street, something we have said is a terrible idea for a city trying to lure more upscale businesses and Fitchburg State College students to the downtown.

They apparently share the same opinion of the city solicitor that I have:

We find Ciota’s suggestion that city officials could open themselves up to a lawsuit if the City Council passed this resolution laughable at best.

To suggest that Planned Parenthood could successfully sue city officials because the City Council passed what is essentially a non-binding resolution that carries no legal weight — if that’s what Ciota is suggesting — is absurd.

This is America, and if the City Council wants to pass a resolution saying its doesn’t want Planned Parenthood opening up in its city, more power to it.

and they let the mayor have it:

And we were also surprised that Mayor Lisa Wong did not attend the portion of the City Council meeting dealing with Planned Parenthood, and believe that she had a responsibility to tell residents how she felt about the issue. She later told us she’d rather see the agency locate somewhere else in the city.

The paper knows that this fight isn’t over. The people need to know that too.

Small bad laws are just as bad as big ones

Posted: December 20, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

A lot of the right (and some of the left) is outraged over the impending passage of the heath care bill it it’s current form (whatever that actually is).

As I said to my old friend the rightwinggamer in comments:

This doesn’t actually bother me all that much in the sense that I didn’t expect better from this congress and that as a nation we made the foolish decision to elect them. We did this to ourselves so we have to take our medicine.

I’m actually much more outraged by this:

Private recycling programs weren’t good enough because the city wants to monitor our compliance. If there are all sorts of different recycling bins, placed where shopkeepers want them, how will the people — AKA the government — know if the mandate is boosting our bag-related virtue over the 10% level? The unenforced mandate, mind you. Now, not only will the people know how many bags are recycled, the people will know how much the mere idea of being supposed to do something produces the intended result. Think there will be a decline from the current 10%? You don’t know Madison.

My beef is really with this line from the actual story Ann References:

Fines for failing to recycle bags range from $100 to $400 a year, but city recycling coordinator George Dreckmann stressed that the city had no intention of enforcing the law emphasis mine

There is nothing that irritates me more than passing a law you aren’t going to enforce, it is a waste of resources and time. Even worse such laws can be selectively enforced to pressure or punish people if the desire arises. And this is local government, a national government might neglect or overlook some things due to its sheer size but a local government is close to the people it should know better.

I know very little about Madison, nothing from direct experience, I live in a city that is broke and where violence and drugs are a real problem.

If these are the people I’d be dealing with rather given the choice I think I’ll stay here.

In both cases the voters put these people in, and in both cases we the voters will get what’s coming to us.

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